ROWLAND HEIGHTS, Calif., Nov. 7, 2014 — RE:NEW co-hosted its first ever concert at Newsong Church in Irvine, California on October 25 with more than 300 people in attendance. The event featured artists from the “Fearless” Tour, including AMP, Mickey Cho, Gowe, Artifex (NAK and Nicholas Cheung), and MC Jin, with an opening act by Hillary Jane, and music by DJ Descry. The “Fearless” Tour is the first time these artists are uniting on the same stage with hopes of exemplifying the idea of being fearless.

“There are stereotypical barriers to get into the arts; people inside the church might believe that we need to compromise in order to become successful in the arts,” said Chung Lee, a member of AMP and also CEO & Co-Founder of Good Fruit, in an interview with Christianity Daily. “All artists take a risk in pursuing their passions … To live out any calling from the Lord, you have to be fearless.”

RE:NEW was asked to partner on this leg of the tour after an exclusive interview with the artists from AMP in November 2013. As a co-sponsor, RE:NEW received a percentage of the proceeds from the concert, which resulted in raising nearly $900 for the organization.

“Partnering on this tour was definitely new ground for RE:NEW,” said Phoebe Ng, RE:NEW project manager. “When we were first asked to partner, I was honestly a little hesitant because we have never managed such a large-scale event, but it was a great opportunity for our staff, as well as our dedicated volunteers. Not one person backed down from the challenge of making this event happen and ensuring that it was as successful as it was – that’s what I call fearless.”

AMP is a collective made up of East Coast artists including Lee (also known as CL), J.Han and Sam Ock, who seek to engage their culture through hip-hop with lyrical influences rooted in deep Christian tradition. Mickey Cho, Gowe, Artifex (NAK and Nicholas Cheung), Hillary Jane, and MC Jin composed the rest of the line-up for the evening. MC Jin was the last to perform, and has the longest career of the group since he became the first American solo rapper of East Asian descent to be signed to a major hip-hop record label. In 2009, he became a Christian and has since expressed his faith in his music.

RE:NEW a Presence movement is the youth and young adult initiative of Presence Quotient. It aims to partner with churches to challenge youth and young adults to re:new their faith by equipping them with teaching, training and resources to learn more about Christ; providing a venue for people to use their God-given gifts; and mobilizing this generation to live with purpose. RE:NEW, which started in 2011, is based in the San Gabriel Valley area, and works alongside Presence and its initiatives. For more information, visit www.RenewTheResponse.org.

Last fall, we released “An Open Letter to the Evangelical Church,” a letter that many chose to support and sign, for which we remain deeply grateful. The letter was a communal response to address repeated instances of racial stereotyping and insensitivity by key individuals and organizations in the church, and you were one of more than 1,000 individuals who supported the letter and helped get the word out about it. As a result of your efforts, the original letter hosted here received more than 2,300 Facebook “likes”. And we know many of you shared about the letter on your own social media networks, often bearing the brunt of the criticism that accompanied doing so. It can’t be said enough: THANK YOU.

We apologize it has taken this long to follow-up with you, to express our appreciation for your support, and to also update you on at least a few of the ripple effects of the letter of which we are aware. You probably already know that the letter garnered media attention from a wide swath of Christian and secular outlets and websites, including NPR, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, and Al Jazeera America, as well as Ed Stetzer’s, Rachel Held Evans‘, and Angry Asian Man’s blogs, to name just a few. We were able to see cultural understanding advanced in organizations such as Exponential. A representative of a key Christian leader reached out to us for further dialogue. And one of the unexpected aftereffects of the letter was to see Lifeway CEO Thom Rainer publicly apologize for the pain and hurt that the company’s “Rickshaw Rally” curriculum caused, nearly ten years ago.

In addition, we know there are other significant interactions occurring as a result of the letter:

Christianity Today is planning multi-city focus groups (in L.A., Chicago, and NYC) to interact with and learn from Asian-American Christian leaders. The magazine is also planning a feature story about Asian American Christianity for the fall.

Verge Network made justice and racial intelligence a major theme for its national gathering in March

Leaders of the Exponential conference are pursuing plans to grow in the area of cultural intelligence, especially with regards to their relationships with the Asian American community

Leaders of several Asian American Christian institutes and initiatives are following up within the Asian American community as well as with the broader church

So although the waters have seemed quiet since the initial post-letter media splash, we are now pursuing long-term change, which often happens beneath the surface and out-of-sight. And as we all know, change takes time and patience. But we have no doubt that as these plans and conversations continue, change will in fact occur, in the church and beyond.

In the meantime, you can help by continuing to advocate for increased Asian American participation in Christian organizations and causes with which you are connected. For example, we have recently contacted both Christianity Today and the new IF: Gathering to encourage increased Asian American representation in their leadership structure, and we would appreciate your taking similar initiative as you feel so led in your own circles of influence. And if you have any of your own stories to share, positive or negative, about any aftereffects of the letter, please feel free to share in the comments below.

The letter was always intended as just a first step to increase awareness in the church of issues related to cultural and racial insensitivity. But as we move on to the post-letter stage, the harder work of pursuing racial reconciliation in the church will require all our collective efforts, both from those of us who signed the letter to those in our broader church family. We welcome your continued participation in these efforts, and we will continue to keep you informed of any major developments as they arise.

(P.S. If you will be at the “Lighting the Community” summit in D.C. this week, and you see either Ken Kong, Daniel Lee, Helen Lee, or Nikki Toyama, please introduce yourself. We’d love to meet you.)

]]>http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2014/05/21/follow-up-to-the-open-letter/feed/1An Open Letter from the Asian American Community to the Evangelical Churchhttp://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/10/13/an-open-letter-to-the-evangelical-church-from-the-asian-american-community/
http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/10/13/an-open-letter-to-the-evangelical-church-from-the-asian-american-community/#commentsMon, 14 Oct 2013 03:53:28 +0000http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/?p=2226First, read the letter...(click here or on the image below for PDF) and then scroll down if you would like to sign, too.

While this letter was being circulated for signatures, Exponential released an apology. We are grateful the apology (a) acknowledged the harm caused by the video, (b) unreservedly accepted responsibility for the video’s content, (c) explained the organization’s intention (without excusing the offense), and (d) invited intentional discussion and relationship-building. One of Exponential’s leaders, Dave Ferguson, has personally contacted several of the letter’s signatories to begin those relationships. Exponential’s response to the Asian American community’s concerns has been refreshingly different from the other incidents described in “Asian American Christians United” letter above.

We decided to post the letter even though Exponential offered a sincere apology because we desire to draw attention to the broader pattern of orientalizing Asian American believers by the evangelical church (the video being only the latest iteration of this problem). When (largely dominant culture) organizations ignore, belittle, or misappropriate Asian/Asian American cultures in ways which likely would not happen to other cultures, it reflects an exercise of dominant culture privilege. Dominant culture organizations can pick-and-choose which cultures to be “sensitive” to. This letter asks the dominant culture to begin to pay attention to our communities’ history and experiences.

This letter also invites dominant culture organizations to listen to and learn from the Asian American community. Please also note that we have more to offer than just cross-cultural skills and ethnic sensitivity training. We too are engaged in worship, mission, discipleship, theological reflection, and vibrant worship. Authentically reconciled communities avoid the tokenism of engaging with minority peoples only when race, ethnicity or culture are under consideration.

***If the widget for signing the letter doesn’t work, feel free to leave a comment below. Please note, new signatures do not load automatically but should appear in a few minutes. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Thanks to the additional supporters of this letter:

Latest Signatures

951

Angie Hong

Durham, NC - North Carolina

Dec 05, 2014

950

Taipan Yu

SACRAMENTO, California

Follower of Jesus Christ

Nov 30, 2014

949

Rick Beard, PhD

Garden City, Missouri

Senior Pastor, Sycamore Grove Mennonite Church

Oct 13, 2014

948

Edward Laarman

Iowa City, Iowa

Director, Geneva Campus Ministry

Oct 06, 2014

947

Peter Szto

Omaha, NE

Associate Professor of Social Work

Jul 02, 2014

946

Rev. Dr. Bob Aquino

Gurnee, IL

Senior Pastor

Jun 29, 2014

945

pastor John k

Challakere, karnataka

pastor

Jun 28, 2014

944

David Flores

Dallas, Texas

Feb 23, 2014

943

Samuel Cheng

Honolulu, HI

Feb 23, 2014

942

Bishop Dominic Luong

Santa Ana, CA

Auxiliary Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange

Feb 18, 2014

941

Jonathan Tan

Cincinnati, Ohio

Theologian and author

Feb 12, 2014

940

David Rapp

Medford, Oregon

Pastor

Jan 28, 2014

939

Rebecca Kim

Malibu, CA

Professor of Sociology, Pepperdine University

Jan 25, 2014

938

Amy Deakin

London

Charity worker

Jan 19, 2014

937

Yang Chen

Auburn Hills, MI

Youth Pastor

Jan 13, 2014

936

Solomon (Chae Pung) Kim

La Habra, California

E.M/ Education Pastor

Jan 09, 2014

935

EDRAS MEUS

Port-au-prince

Pastor I would like working together with your ministries Hope you will visit Haiti for preaching some revivals day who God blessing you all Good news year 2014 Meus Edras Pastor Phon 509 33 31 15 37

Here’s my essay recently posted on Christianity Today’s “This Is our City” series. It offers snippets of our twenty years of urban ministry in Oakland, about which I’m writing a spiritual memoir. You can read the story here.

This is an excerpt about my Mien neighbor:

Faithfulness over Effectivenesss

While it is tempting to romanticize the kids and our communal life, the city’s violence born of inequality and structural racism has worn on me. Over 2,000 individuals have been murdered during my time in Oakland and I have witnessed my share of shootings. Even when we organized our neighbors and won a housing lawsuit that rebuilt Oak Park, the new apartment layout unintentionally eroded our sense of community. I had to move because of federal rental guidelines, and the families preferred to remain inside their enlarged units.

When the issues of our city appear too daunting, I likewise retreat and focus on my own personal life, where I have some semblance of control. After leaving Oak Park, my wife and I purchased a home two blocks away, and we built gates to keep out the city’s dangers. But, fortunately, our refugee neighbors continue to knock at our door to teach us kingdom values.

When we got our house, I borrowed a rototiller and cleared weeds in our huge yard. After an afternoon of hard toil, I gave up; all I had readied was a small plot 5’ by 10’. The next day, I was surprised by a small, turbaned lady sitting up in our apricot tree, like Zaccheus. Yien Saelee, a grandmother who is Iu Mien, was hacking branches. She had seen that the lot was empty and came to start a garden with my permission. I agreed, but doubted her strength to do the work.

To my surprise, though, she returned with two other grandmothers, each armed with only a small machete, and cleared the entire yard. They planted the Native American Three Sisters– corn, squash, and beans—and soon, my family received locally grown, organic vegetables to meet our daily required vitamins.

Yien later joined our church’s “Young Family” cell, which paradoxically came to include five grandmothers. As we shared and prayed together, I learned more of her story. During the Laotian Civil War, she had lost three sons—child soldiers fighting with the CIA—and her husband was assassinated. Moving to our Oakland neighborhood as a refugee did not make her life much easier; she remained poor and constantly felt fatigued. Her step-parents’ spirits tormented her such that they made searing burns on her arms.

After being resettled in Oakland, Yien became a Christian when God revealed himself in a dream to her. Since then, she claims, “My heart is light now because I no longer have to bear the burden of the spiritual world; it was too heavy.” Not only did she pray for us and support her own local Mien church, but also she regularly taped gospel songs to be sent to Laos.

In spite of their advanced years, Yien and her fellow grandmas collect aluminum cans and hawk their produce to supplement their scant disability benefits that were almost cut by welfare reform. Her sense of social justice isn’t about asserting her rights, but taking responsibility for others. Always chipping in for our water bill, she states simply, “I’m happy for the opportunity not to starve.”

When my father passed away, Yien, her back bent from osteoporosis, took the time to stand with my family in our grief. Despite our communication and cultural barriers, her unceasing prayers and faithful presence comforted me. Growing up with privilege, I came to expect to make my mark and to effect social change in Oakland. Unfortunately, our neighborhood has not been transformed despite our church’s best efforts. If anything, its persistent poverty reflects the growing inequality in our nation.

Yien models for me another way to make one’s mark. The servant who is faithful is the one who enters the joy of the master. The persistent widow who prays boldly is the one who receives justice.

]]>http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/06/27/top-15-blog-posts-over-the-last-quarter/feed/0Imported Entries to Join Our Voiceshttp://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/05/24/imported-entries-to-join-our-voices/
http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/05/24/imported-entries-to-join-our-voices/#commentsFri, 24 May 2013 23:00:04 +0000http://yellowfaith.wordpress.com/?p=4We’ve imported a dozen or so blog entries from another blog called “yellowfaith” – Ministry and faith from an Asian American perspective. Posted & imported with permission. Browse those blog entries here, they’re tagged “imported“. Below is the introduction from that blog (which ended in 2011.)

yellowfaith: welcome

(Posted June 19 2009 by Dave Ingland)

yellowfaith was created in response to the ongoing conversation of Asian American Christians and how they connect within the church. Should Asian Americans succumb to a Caucasian American worship experience on Sundays? If Asian Americans gather in a community of faith with other Asian Americans, should this be viewed as a form of racism? Is there an identity crisis amongst Asian American Christians, confused as to who they are in Christ–too Asian to fit in with Caucasians, yet not Asian enough to worship with other Asian Americans? When Asian Americans connect in a white church that seeks to be multi-cultural, is their culture truly recognized or are they asked to confirm to a white rather than yellow gospel? Should there even be a yellow gospel?

Here at yellowfaith we hope to engage in some hard questions in the interest of gaining some understanding to the state of faith in Asian American culture today.

Related Posts

]]>http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/05/24/imported-entries-to-join-our-voices/feed/3Notice any missing voices?http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/05/14/notice-any-missing-voices/
http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/05/14/notice-any-missing-voices/#commentsTue, 14 May 2013 20:57:48 +0000http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/?p=2132May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian-Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island). See the latest statistics about this Asian American demographic published by the Census Bureau.

In juxtaposition with the sections on this popular website called Huffington Post. What do you notice?

]]>http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/05/14/notice-any-missing-voices/feed/0List of Asian American Christian Bloggershttp://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/04/06/list-of-asian-american-christian-bloggers/
http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2013/04/06/list-of-asian-american-christian-bloggers/#commentsSat, 06 Apr 2013 17:44:24 +0000http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/?p=2145Perhaps the largest list of bloggers who are Asian American and Christians compiled to date, with 50 blogs listed at the time of this post.

The blogs listed are not necessarily Christian blogs nor Asian American blogs, they’re blogs of bloggers who happen to be Asian American and Christian as a baseline. The AsAmChristian Blogroll is compiled by Huan-Zung Hsu aka notapastor, and the criteria is stated as:

“… the bloggers are Asian American or have some connection to/interest in Asian Americans; and the bloggers are Christian or have some connection to/interest in Christianity. Doesn’t matter if they’re famous or well-credentialed or how long their blogs have been around. Doesn’t matter if I agree or disagree with their politics or theology.”

[update: this Blogroll is now hosted on the SANACS (Society of Asian North American Christian Studies) blog]